The Ashram-Goshala (cowshed) forms an essential aspect of our service to animals, nature, and humanity. The cowshed is an asset to the ashram and its agricultural activities, together creating a mutually beneficial unit in the ashram and contributing to our efforts towards self-sustenance.
The ability to generate food and funds on its own is one of the ashram's prime goals. The dung of the cows is the sole feed for the two bio-gas plants, which deliver cooking gas for our kitchen.
Protecting our environment
Goshala
We treat our cows with love and respect them for what they give us without asking anything in return. If people could be just half as beneficial to the world as cows are, we would live in paradise!
They deliver us (every day in time and without the risk of chemical adulteration)
- Milk (covers all the needs of the ashram; extra dairy is sold to a milk vendor)
- Quality fertilizers
- Dung for our biogas plants which produce cooking bio-gas for the kitchen
- Panchagavya is made entirely from the cows' by-products and is being re-discovered as a skin remedy and internal medicine for many ailments. Panchagavya is also widely used in agriculture, Ayurveda medicine, and cosmetics.
In economics, we learn to honor producers and pay for the products they manufacture with care for the welfare of all - Why does this not apply to ALL producers, including the most selfless ones??
Protection of land
Rice fields and coconut groves surround the Aum Pranava Ashram.
Cutting trees and transforming rice fields into plotted lands for high-end sale prices to real estate businesses are well-known business practices that endanger not only the natural beauty of the landscape but cause imbalance in ecological areas (like forests and agricultural fields) and can ultimately lead to climate changes.
The ashram would love to extend its agricultural activities, but we do not have enough land, and neighbouring lands are too expensive for us to purchase.
The Holy Cow
Legend has it that Kamadhenu descended from the celestial worlds to benefit all created beings. Hence, all the cows in existence today should be descendants of the holy cow of Bharath and share her sacred status.
In the book "The Quest of God" by Swami Ramdas@Pappaji from Kanhangad, we read: "Truly, the cow represents the Mother of the Universe and is a grand ideal of all that is gentle, pure, self-sacrificing and innocent. The Gomata yields milk, out of which curds, butter, and ghee are made for the use of man. And again, she is the Mother of the bullocks that plow the fields for growing grains which provide food for the use of man. Even her dung is of great use as manure and fuel. [...] After death, various useful articles are made of her skin and bones. O, Mother! You are indeed Kamadhenu!"
Accordingly, cows should be cared for with love and protected with esteem and gratitude.
Our ashram is purely vegetarian; we don’t buy or sell cows; the milk is for the use of the children, elders, and all staff members of the ashram; extra milk is sold individually; our two biogas plants transform the cow dung into cooking gas and fertiliser for the fields.